On Tuesday we have a 4.5 magnitude earthquake that jolts the house. I'm not sure if I was awake just before the event or it woke me up, but its ironic that I just got a book from the library about what we know and don't know about earthquakes. I get up early and go for about an hour long walk and then ride the motorcycle up to San Gabriel for a disastrous meeting. As I'm riding up to the meeting I look down and see that I am going about 100 mph and I just say to myself "Let the motorcycle run" because this is the speed that it wants to run at. Nobody is on the same page at the meeting regarding the child abuse application that we are trying to get installed at Centinela hospital and none of the sponsoring organizations are willing to put up a dime. Ruby and I get into a very serious argument that we try and resolve later. And I tell her as we are walking to our vehicles, "The tension between us is going to continue until someone puts up some money and DOES SOMETHING. ANYTHING" I tell her that I am too old to be waiting around for false promises. I ride the motorcycle back home and lubricate the chain and do not get in a workout. I have to admit the motorcycle with a new coat of wax looks super! And I hope that it runs that way for quite a while. I check the news and try to de-stress from the meeting and catch the Moto2 race from Jerez, Spain late in the afternoon.
Wednesday starts with a good two hour mountain bicycle ride. I'm out early today so there are not many others riders out yet. After getting cleaned up I put together my list of errands and go run them. And meet with one of my financial advisors at noon. I finally admit that I probably need a CPA for a year or so to take care of a tricky tax event that I am thinking of doing and need to see if it is advantageous or not. When I get home I edge, mow, and trim the front yard only I decide to let the backyard grow a bit and hope that it reduces the watering requirement. Today I have to review my list of tasks in order to re-prioritize (after yesterday's disastrous meeting).
I get up and walk all of the way to the library to return a book in the morning. (It's the author's first book and I got through it in two days and its bogus and it will probably be his only novel.) On the way back home I stop in at the grocery store for supplies, trim the roses, and water the roses before taking a shower. I then spend a few hours updating some Long Beach crime statistics (by geolocation) and also writing a Python script to scrape websites for information that I need. Early in the afternoon I sit and watch the Tour de Alps bicycle race and then go back to work on crime statistics in a geopsatial sense (as opposed to a geolocation sense).
I'm woken from deep sleep at 1:15 am on Friday from a neighbor behind me, not the usually noisy neighbor, with music playing. It isn't really that loud, but it wakes me nonetheless. I put in ear plugs and try to go back to sleep but cannot. Thus I turn on the light and read. Finally approaching 4 am I fall back asleep. When I wake up the day is windy so I do not get out cycling. I work on some crime maps and a non-profit grant proposal and then have a good session lifting weights. Afterwards I take out the electric hedge trimmer and start swinging it wildly to trim the low hanging branches of a large tree in my backyard. Just as I am almost finished I swing the hedge trimmer and slice through the extension cord. I hear the pop of the breaker popping and I see smoke coming from the electric hedge trimmer. I unplug everything and check the hedge trimmer and it still runs. But I coil up the extension cord for disposal at a recycling center. (This is the second time in 30 years that I've sliced through an extension cord with these hedge trimmers.) After a shower I work on a non-proitt grant proposal and have a slow day.
I start Saturday in just a cycling jersey north on the Los Angeles river trail. There is the possibility of rain, but I ignore it. Halfway up the trail I am met with rain that is light and then get a bit heavier than light - but not even moderate. I just keep pedaling along and note that every cyclist that I come across has raingear on. I turn north at the Whittier Narrows dam and continue to a conevenient turn-around point. I turn around and head for home and have dry the weather the rest of the way home for a total of about 48 miles of riding. I clean the bicycle and then get in a warm shower. I run some errands including getting another book from the library and other supplies. When I get home I watch the F1 qualifying from Spain and then decide that I am feeling a bit chilled from the cold rain riding, so I put on long sweat pants and and extra hoodie to stay warm.
Sunday morning is another morning of threatening rain, but I get out for a two hour ride on the mountain bicycle. After a shower I make a trip to the grocery store and there is some rain coming down as I drive home. Thus when I put all of the dirty clothes in the washing machine I switch over to long sweat pants and a hoodie for the cool morning. I watch a semi-fun Formula One race from Spain but am left puzzled by some of the strategy calls. And I spend a quiet Sunday trimming roses, watering impatiens, planning the next week out, and watching sporting events on television.
I have slow Monday and Tuesdays with some long walks, workouts with the weights, and some programming.
I wake up early on Wednesday but have the slightest fever. I get out for the loop ride on the road bicycle and feel strong throughout. When I get home I take a quick shower, do some grocery shopping, and some web reading. I read about a Principle Component Analysis (PCA) method of reducing the sample size of large datasets and start working on that. It seems like this will be the solution to one of the problems that I have been struggling with where there are a lot of variables that don't matter much and a few that are dominant. So I start to work on programming the PCA method and assume that it will continue on until Thursday. I'm supposed to visit a Casa Shelter youth home today, but I don't make it because I'm excited about the PCA method such that I work on it. Later in the day I watch the ice hockey playoff game.
On Thursday and Friday I'm on a mission. I continue working on the Python PCA and have very good success. By the end of Friday afternoon I have programmed the PCA and obtained results which I believe. Now I just have to integrate it with the neural networks to reduce the number of training basis parameters. And be able to relate the transformed basis parameters back to the original parameters. On Thursday I lift weights to break up the day and energize me for more programming and on Friday I get out for a good loop ride to start the day. By Friday night I am restless so I call an Uber and go to a club in Long Beach. The crowd is not my crowd but there are some cuties and some decent music. So with a single vodka and cranberry juice in me I am able to lose myself on the dance floor despite overtures from people of various genders. And I grab an Uber ride home and read for a bit and finally turn off the lights for sleep after 1 am - a relatively early night for clubbing.
I'm lazy on Saturday so I catch up on qualifying for the Francg MotoGP/Moto2/Motot3 races and take a shower and trim roses and have a chilly motorcycle ride up to La Canada for a meeting on contracts and funding for the child abuse project. The resident of the house, a famous physician in the arena of child abuse and child fatality, points out JPL across the canyon from his house and we have a little discussion about the work that I did there. (I visited this famous physician with others once before a few years ago, but the JPL discussion never came up.) I meet a new "interested party" Manny and he and I hit it off well because he's an algorithm geek/data scientist. Finally, after a long meeting I rush on home on the motorcycle to relax and watch the ice hockey playoff game.
I have super sleep on Saturday night into Sunday morning from Friday night's sleep deficit. I get on the road bicycle fairly early and do the loop ride again instead of a longer ride. After taking care of the impatiens I get in a shower and watch a fun MotoGP race from France. The early action in the race is exciting and the end of the race is interesting as different riders are on different tires and whose tire will hold up and whose will give up? After the race I go to work on the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and find that after I eliminate some redudant statistics, the results are looking VERY promising.
I sleep well on Sunday night and lift weights heavy and proceed with the PCA analysis and neural networks. Throughout the day I help the neighbor re-charge a car battery can get the old car started. And I finish the day with some more very interesting reading on the physics of earthquakes. Is this another fun opportunity for me to pursue?